Refugee Blues
W.H. Auden
In the title “Refugee Blues”, W.H. Auden is making reference to a particular musical style:
Blues is an African-American music that traverses a wide range of emotions and musical styles.
“Feeling blue” is expressed in songs whose verses lament injustice or express longing for a better life
and lost loves, jobs, and money. (http://www.internationalbluesmusicday.com/blues-history.html)
The title of the poem, therefore, hints at the musicality that one can detect as one reads the poem,
particularly in the rhythm, the regular rhyme scheme and the use of a refrain (a line or a number
of lines that are repeated in a poem or in song lyrics). This poem also first appeared in a collection
titled “Ten Songs” which also draws the reader’s attention to the musical elements of the poem.
This poem can therefore be described as a lyric.
This poem was written in 1939, just before Germany invaded Poland – an event which triggered
World War II. On the eve of World War II, many Jews fled Nazi persecution in Germany. They
often faced a hostile reception and were even frequently turned away. W.H. Auden had emigrated
from Great Britain to the United States of America in 1939 and was painfully aware of what it was
like to be an outsider. He was disgusted by the way German Jews were treated by the US
government which turned away shiploads of Jewish refugees (see visual on the right from
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugee
s-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/ ).
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
1
, "If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.
Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.
Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
2
W.H. Auden
In the title “Refugee Blues”, W.H. Auden is making reference to a particular musical style:
Blues is an African-American music that traverses a wide range of emotions and musical styles.
“Feeling blue” is expressed in songs whose verses lament injustice or express longing for a better life
and lost loves, jobs, and money. (http://www.internationalbluesmusicday.com/blues-history.html)
The title of the poem, therefore, hints at the musicality that one can detect as one reads the poem,
particularly in the rhythm, the regular rhyme scheme and the use of a refrain (a line or a number
of lines that are repeated in a poem or in song lyrics). This poem also first appeared in a collection
titled “Ten Songs” which also draws the reader’s attention to the musical elements of the poem.
This poem can therefore be described as a lyric.
This poem was written in 1939, just before Germany invaded Poland – an event which triggered
World War II. On the eve of World War II, many Jews fled Nazi persecution in Germany. They
often faced a hostile reception and were even frequently turned away. W.H. Auden had emigrated
from Great Britain to the United States of America in 1939 and was painfully aware of what it was
like to be an outsider. He was disgusted by the way German Jews were treated by the US
government which turned away shiploads of Jewish refugees (see visual on the right from
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugee
s-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/ ).
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
1
, "If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.
Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.
Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.
Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.
Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.
Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
2
